Osama bin Laden (1957-2011)

In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here.

News about Osama bin Laden (1957-2011), including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times.

Chronology of Coverage

May. 22, 2015

Michiko Kakutani Critic's Notebook concludes Osama bin Laden was fixated on West and American imperialism judging by Al Qaeda leader's collection of books, periodicals and letters found in his Abbottabad, Pakistan, bunker, seized in 2011 Navy SEAL raid. MORE

May. 22, 2015

Documents seized in Navy SEALS raid on Osama bin Laden compound in Pakistan in 2011 reveal that Al Qaeda leader was considering relocating in months before SEALS stormed compound and killed him. MORE

May. 21, 2015

Obama administration releases almost 80 pieces of declassified information seized in Navy's May 2011 raid of Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound; release comes after years of pressure and 2014 congressional request directing Office of the Director of National Intelligence to review material. MORE

May. 12, 2015

Article published in London Review of Books by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour M Hersh contradicts official version of events surrounding killing of Osama bin Laden; version, relying heavily on anonymous sources, posits several plausible alternate scenarios and stirs controversy due to Hersh's prominence and Obama administration's well-noted, often contradictory accounts of operation. MORE

Feb. 27, 2015

Khalid al-Fawwaz, Saudi man accused of close association with Osama bin Laden, is convicted of involvement in plot to kill Americans worldwide and of helping plan 1998 bombings of United States Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya; verdict is likely to support Obama administration's assertion that terrorism cases can be tried in American courts. MORE

Dec. 10, 2014

Senate Intelligence Committee report on Central Intelligence Agency's program to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects after Sept 11 attacks rejects notion that agency would not have found Osama bin Laden if it had not tortured detainees; says most information about Al Qaeda courier who led agency to Bin Laden was acquired from sources not related to CIA's program. MORE

Nov. 8, 2014

Matt Bissonnette, former Navy Seal who wrote firsthand account of 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, stands to lose more than $8 million through forfeiture of royalties to the government and lost business opportunities over his failure to have book No Easy Day vetted through Pentagon's required security review process. MORE

Nov. 7, 2014

Former Navy SEALs member Robert O’Neill says he is the ex-commando who fired fatal shots that felled terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in 2011; is second SEALs member to say he was among those who shot Bin Laden; public claims have antagonized senior officials, prompted a criminal investigation over disclosing classified information and alienated fellow SEALs, who object to individuals taking credit or cashing in on team efforts. MORE

Oct. 31, 2014

Matt Bissonnette, former Navy SEAL who wrote a best seller about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, is under criminal investigation for disclosing classified material; he apologized for failing to have book No Easy Day vetted through Pentagon's required security review process. MORE

Sep. 24, 2014

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, who was most senior adviser to Osama bin Laden, is sentenced to life in prison by Federal District Court Judge Lewis A Kaplan in Manhattan; convicted of conspiracy to kill Americans, providing material support to terrorists and conspiring to do so, he warns his penalty will bring dire consequences. MORE

May. 20, 2014

Obama administration tells group of American health educators that the Central Intelligence Agency will no longer use immunization programs as a cover for spying operations; statement, in a letter, comes three years after CIA set up phony vaccination program in Pakistan in hunt for Osama bin Laden; dozens of public health workers in Pakistan have been killed since vaccination program became public. MORE

May. 7, 2014

Memo From Pakistan; Islamabad's Red Mosque, long a barometer of Islamic militancy, inaugurates library named after Osama bin Laden; inflammatory move comes as nation debates whether to negotiate with militants, as government is struggling to do, or to fight them more robustly. MORE

Mar. 27, 2014

Federal jury convicts Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, most senior confederate of Osama bin Laden to be tried in a civilian court, of conspiring to kill Americans and other terrorism charges; swift conviction on all counts seems to serve as a rejoinder to critics of the Obama administration's efforts to try suspected terrorists in civilian courts rather than before a military tribunal. MORE

Mar. 23, 2014

Article about Pakistan's relationship to Al Qaeda, and its knowledge of Osama bin Laden's last hiding place within its borders, is censored from the front page of about 9,000 copies of the International New York Times in Pakistan. MORE

Mar. 23, 2014

Carlotta Gall article describes trying to find out how much Pakistan's intelligence services knew about the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden; examines implications of America's failure to fully understand and actively confront Pakistan on its support and export of terrorism. MORE

Mar. 20, 2014

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, most senior adviser to Osama bin Laden to be tried in civilian court, details meeting with former Al Qaeda leader in a cave in Afghanistan on the night of the Sept 11 attacks; Abu Ghaith's testimony gives government rare opportunity to cross-examine someone with extraordinary ties to Bin Laden, revealing detailed portrait. MORE

Mar. 16, 2014

Pakistani official reduces by 10 years the 33-year sentence of Shakil Afridi, Pakistani medical doctor who had been convicted of treason for helping Central Intelligence Agency track down Osama bin Laden. MORE

Mar. 13, 2014

Lawyers for Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, on trial in Manhattan on terrorism charges, seek permission from judge to present full summary of his interrogation to jury; calling statement 'linchpin of government's case,' defense attorneys argue that document should not be introduced to jury piecemeal throughout the trial. MORE

Mar. 7, 2014

Testimony of Sahim Alwan in Manhattan court seems intended to support government’s contention that Sulaiman Abu Ghaith played an important role for Al Qaeda before the Sept 11 attacks; testifies that he saw Ghaith at a Qaeda guesthouse in Afghanistan telling trainees about the concept of swearing an oath of loyalty, or giving 'bayat,' to Osama bin Laden. MORE

Mar. 6, 2014

Federal prosecutor in terrorism trial of Sulaiman Abu Ghaith in Federal District Court in Manhattan tells jury that Osama bin Laden had asked Abu Ghaith to help recruit new suicide bombers mere hours after Sept 11 attacks. MORE

Aug. 30, 2013

Pakistani official Sahibzada Muhammad Anis overturns conviction of Shakil Afridi, doctor who helped Central Intelligence Agency while it was searching for Osama bin Laden, on charges of aiding banned Islamist group; Afridi's conviction was seen as proxy for Pakistani accusations that helped CIA find bin Laden. MORE

Jul. 9, 2013

Pakistani government report investigating American raid in May 2011 that killed Osama bin Laden is leaked to Al Jazeera after authorities had suppressed it for months; scathing report, which cites collective incompetence of the country’s security forces, offers most comprehensive official account yet of Bin Laden's time on the run in Pakistan and the American Navy SEALS raid that took his life. MORE

Apr. 20, 2013

Judge denies request from lawyers for Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, to allow him more than one phone call per month from Manhattan high-security jail where he is being held in solitary confinement on charges of conspiring to kill Americans. MORE

Mar. 9, 2013

Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, son-in-law of Osama bin Laden who once served as spokesman for Al Qaeda, pleads not guilty at his arraignment in federal court in Manhattan, where he is charged with conspiring to kill Americans. MORE

Jan. 17, 2013

Op-Ed article by actor Ricky S Sekhon describes preparing for his role as Osama bin Laden in movie Zero Dark Thirty. MORE

Jan. 8, 2013

Deans of nation's top public health universities, including Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and nine others, send letter to Pres Obama condemning Central Intelligence Agency's use of vaccination campaign ruse in hunt for Osama bin Laden. MORE

Jan. 4, 2013

Lawmakers are accusing Central Intelligence Agency of misleading makers of movie Zero Dark Thirty, about the raid on Osama bin Laden, by telling them that waterboarding and similar techniques helped track him down. MORE

Dec. 13, 2012

Critics, journalists and activists who have watched early screenings of Zero Dark Thirty, movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, are divided over suggestion that calculated and brutal Central Intelligence Agency interrogation techniques may have produced useful clues in hunt for the terrorist leader; classified Senate report is said to have found that torture was not a central component in finding Bin Laden, but topic is fodder for partisan fight. MORE

Dec. 12, 2012

Maureen Dowd Op-Ed column examines way in which Kathryn Bigelow movie Zero Dark Thirty, which chronicles hunt for Osama bin Laden, depicts Central Intelligence Agency's use of torture; notes both Bigelow and female CIA agent who served as inspiration for film's main character have set off waves of envy in Hollywood and within agency. MORE

Dec. 5, 2012

Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl, former close aide to Osama bin Laden who became a crucial witness for the United States government after he defected from Al Qaeda, has asked to be sentenced without further delay out of fears that his children could be sent back to Sudan and be killed; request, which could breach his cooperation agreement with prosecutors, highlights the risks and complications of long-running federal investigations. MORE

Oct. 24, 2012

Television film SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama bin Laden, which documents killing of bin Laden, has been edited to give a starring role to Pres Obama and is scheduled to air two days before the election; star turn is virtually certain to bolster claims that edits are a political stunt promoted by the film's backer, and longtime Democratic contributor, Harvey Weinstein. MORE

Sep. 16, 2012

Sealed Mindset gun range in the Minneapolis suburb of New Hope offers the role-playing experience of killing Osama bin Laden; participants pay $325 for two hours of Navy SEAL training and a chance to re-enact the 2011 raid on Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, pelting a fake Bin Laden with paint bullets. MORE

Sep. 7, 2012

Pakistani government appears to have moved to expel international staff members at the aid agency Save the Children, but later issues a temporary reprieve; original order was apparently due to accusations that one of its employees helped the Central Intelligence Agency recruit Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who played a role in tracking Osama bin Laden in 2011. MORE

Sep. 5, 2012

Pentagon press secretary George Little says the Defense Department believes there is classified information in the book No Easy Day, a new first-person account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden; author Matt Bissonnette says he did not violate nondisclosure agreements he signed with the government. MORE

Sep. 3, 2012

Group of former Special Operations veterans publish e-book No Easy Op, in response to Matt Bissonnette's controversial book No Easy Day that recounts the raid that killed Osama bin Laden; book alleges that Bissonnette broke the Navy SEAL's code of silence because of 'bad blood' with members of his former unit, the elite SEAL Team 6. MORE

Sep. 1, 2012

Pentagon threatens to take legal action against Matt Bissonnette, the former member of the Navy SEALs who has written a first-person account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, for revealing classified information and failing to submit his book to the Pentagon for review; the book No Easy Day is scheduled for publication by Penguin on Sept 4. MORE

Aug. 30, 2012

Book No Easy Day, firsthand account of the Navy SEALs raid that killed Osama bin Laden, raises questions about whether the Al Qaeda leader posed a clear threat to the commandos who fired on him; book by Matt Bissonnette but published under pseudonym Mark Owen contradicts the Obama administration's previous descriptions of the mission. MORE

Aug. 24, 2012

Former Navy SEAL member who has written a firsthand account of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden is identified as Matt Bissonnette; Defense Dept says he has violated department regulations by not submitting the manuscript to the department for approval; Bissonnette's book No Easy Day will be released by Penguin under a pseudonym on Sept 11. MORE

Jun. 2, 2012

Lawyers for Shakil Afridi, Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Intelligence Agency find Osama bin Laden, lodge an appeal to overturn his conviction, which related to charges of aiding the militant group Lashkar-i-Islam; claim that Afridi had no links with Lashkar-i-Islam, and that he did not receive a fair trial. MORE

May. 31, 2012

Tribal court documents show that Shakil Afridi, who was sentenced to 33 years in prison after helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden, has not been charged with treason; Afridi, who was tried under Pakistan’s opaque tribal justice system, was convicted of colluding with and donating money to a local Islamist warlord; revelation adds a twist to a case that has come to embody the dismal relations between Islamabad and Washington. MORE

May. 25, 2012

American drone strikes continue in northwestern Pakistan, adding to growing tension between the two countries as a Senate panel votes to cut aid to Pakistan further and American officials express outrage at a 33-year sentence given to Shakil Afridi, a local doctor who was convicted of treason for helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden in 2011. MORE

May. 24, 2012

Dr Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who helped the Central Intelligence Agency pin down Osama bin Laden’s location under the cover of a vaccination drive is convicted of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison; his fate has been an added source of tension between Pakistan and the United States, at a time when the countries remain at odds over reopening supply lines through Pakistan to Afghanistan. MORE

May. 4, 2012

Details of Osama bin Laden's thoughts about strategy, his legacy and his efforts to maintain control over his sprawling terrorist network while hiding in the compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, emerge from a sheaf of letters found after the raid; his frustrations as he issued instructions, sometimes in vain, might be familiar to any chief executive trying to keep tabs on a multinational corporation that had grown beyond its modest origins. MORE

May. 3, 2012

Fate of small-town doctor, Shakil Afridi, who was recruited by the CIA to help track Osama bin Laden remains a sore spot between the United States and Pakistan; Afridi was picked up by Pakistani intelligence agents days after the raid in May 2011 and, while American officials consider him a hero, he is seen in Pakistan as a traitor who should face treason charges; his case has had a much wider effect, however, having roiled the humanitarian community, giving rise to restrictions that have compromised aid operations. MORE

May. 1, 2012

Federal authorities increase their vigilance at selected airports abroad, even though there is no evidence of threats against the United States tied to one-year anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's death. MORE

May. 1, 2012

Senators Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin rebut Bush administration officials' claim that the Central Intelligence Agency's coercive interrogation methods produced information that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011. MORE

May. 1, 2012

Presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney, in attempt to minimize Pres Obama's signature military accomplishment and burnish his own standing as a potential commander in chief, takes a swipe at Obama by implying that any president would have acted on the same intelligence to kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. MORE

{"type":"article","show_header_text":false,"header":"Articles","query":"(per = \"BIN LADEN, OSAMA\" OR per = \"LADEN, OSAMA BIN\") and tom!=\"Caption\" and tom!=\"Correction\" and tom!=\"Letter\" and tom!=\"List\"","search_query":"(persons:\"BIN LADEN, OSAMA\" OR persons:\"LADEN, OSAMA BIN\") AND -type_of_material:\"Caption\" AND -type_of_material:\"Correction\" AND -type_of_material:\"Letter\" AND -type_of_material:\"List\"","num_search_articles":"45","show_summary":true,"show_byline":true,"show_pub_date":true,"hide_thumbnails":false,"show_kicker":false,"show_title":false,"show_related_topics":false,"show_rad_links":false,"show_subtopics":true,"exclude_topics":"","exclude":[""],"more_on_header":"","alternate_index_subidx":"","show_thumbnails":true}

June 12, 2015, Friday

A Times article on the secret history of SEAL Team 6, the Navy unit best known for killing Osama bin Laden, drew a range of reactions from readers in the comments section. While some lauded the team, others expressed cynicism about the secrecy...

May 27, 2015, Wednesday

Multimedia

The Combating Terrorism Center at the United States Military Academy released a selection of documents discovered during the 2011 raid in Abbottabbad, Pakistan, that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Since 9/11, there's been an outpouring of books about Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, the September 11th attacks and the war in Afghanistan. Here is an annotated list of some of the more useful books on those subjects.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest says the Obama administration is "not particularly concerned" about a new report that disputes their story surrounding the killing of Osama bin Laden. Rough Cut (no reporter narration).